by Jeff Halper

The more I deal with the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the more I sense a need for an integrated three-pronged strategy if we really intend to end the Occupation.

Level 1: Focused Campaigns Around Specific Issues. There are many issues that, together, comprise the Occupation: Israel's policy of house demolitions and massive land expropriation, the Caterpillar campaign and the issue of American and European corporate involvement in the repression of the Palestinians, Israelis refusing military service, the construction of the Wall, Israel's violations of its "Association Agreements" with the EU, the uprooting of hundreds of thousands of fruit and olive trees, the misery caused by "the Closure," and all the others. Each is important in and of itself. What is important, it seems to me, is to use each issue to expose another part of the Occupation, and eventually to show the connections among them all, the web of injustice and suffering that defines the Occupation.

The trick is to find the issues inside the issue, what it is that makes it a significant part of the Occupation. The campaign against house demolitions (or the Wall), for example, is significant on several levels. Every family story graphically portrays the Occupation for a public for whom it is otherwise distant and abstract. It presents a compelling counter-framing to Israel's contention that it is only combating terrorism. Resistance to demolition and rebuilding activities raise the crucial question: Why did Israel demolish that home? That, in turn, gives us an opening to begin to explain the logic behind demolitions (to confine Palestinians to small enclaves), and therefore behind the Occupation in general. It enables us to expose the Occupation's complex workings, its use of planning, administration and legal mechanisms to achieve political ends. From there emerges a grounded analysis that helps focus on the main components of the Occupation, thereby strengthening the overall effort to end it.

By: Jeff Halper

One of the most conspicuous features of the September 11 attack on the United States was the general inability to "get a handle" on what had happened. Thousands of responses filled our TV screens and newspapers. Those of the victims' families were predictably emotional. So were the responses of the-man-on-the-street, which ranged from shaken and disoriented to patriotic and revengeful. Nor did the public get much perspective and clarity from the learned "experts," political figures and apologetic voices from the Muslim world. While all this is understandable in the immediate aftermath of the attacks, a year later we still do not have that perspective, that "handle." The overriding reaction continues to be one of "war" retaliation and victory as if we are simply in a conventional battle with the "bad guys."

By Jeff Halper

The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, together with the entire Israeli peace and human rights movement, mourns the death in Gaza of Rachel Corrie and extends its condolences to her family, friends and comrades in the International Solidarity Movement.

Rachel was not the first person killed as a result of Israel's cruel policy of house demolitions. Less than two weeks ago Nuha Makadma Sweidan and her unborn child were also killed in Gaza when Israeli army sappers "accidentally" demolished their home when they blew up another home nearby. A few weeks before that an elderly woman and a disabled man died under the rubble of their Gazan homes when the soldiers "failed to notice" them. These were no mere accidents. Israel routinely demolishes Palestinian houses on top of all the families' possessions, and in their haste do not bother to follow prosaic rules of "safety."

by: Dr. Jeff Halper

At this very moment (Friday, May 14), Israel army bulldozers are razing dozens of homes in the Rafah refugee camp in retaliation for the deaths of five Israeli soldiers. Prime Minister Sharon and Defense Minister Mofaz last night authorized the army to demolish hundreds of Palestinian houses at Rafah, on the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt, so as to create a "sterile" zone hundreds of meters wide. This, in addition to dozens of homes demolished or threatened with demolition in the Zeidun refugee camp in Gaza City. According to witnesses, panic-stricken residents are grabbing whatever belongings they can carry and are fleeing, some waving white flags at approaching Israeli forces.

by Jeff Halper

Only a decade after the fall of apartheid in South Africa, after we all thought we had seen the end of that hateful system, we are witnessing the emergence of another apartheid-style regime, that of Israel over the incipient Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and parts of Jerusalem. This, at least, seems the likely outcome of the "peace process" begun in Oslo and continued, if haltingly, at the July Camp David summit. Whether a Palestinian state actually emerges from the Oslo process or Israel's occupation becomes permanent, the essential elements of apartheid -- exclusivity, inequality, separation, control, dependency, violations of human rights and suffering -- are likely to define the relationship between Israel and the Occupied Territories/Palestine. For many, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak's offer at Camp David of 94 percent (or so) of the West Bank sounds more than generous, and Yasir Arafat appears "inflexible," "unreasonable" and even "irresponsible" for not accepting it. Leaving aside the numerous other issues complicating the negotiations between Barak and Arafat, let us consider here the question of territory.

by Jeff Halper

First, you create great expectations. Handshakes on the White House lawn. A rhetoric of peace ("No more war. No more bloodshed"). Elections, giving them a flag of their own. Then secret meetings, summit meetings, dinners, retreats, peace treaties, interim agreements, promises, tantalizing benefits held before hungry eyes. More handshakes, more "gestures."

Then you create a framework of peace that guarantees you negotiating superiority. Take out international law, human rights covenants, UN resolutions, and for good measure enlist your strategic ally, the strongest power in the world, the one who supplies you with all your arms, as the "mediator."

Then, as you talk peace in Oslo, Washington, Paris, Cairo, the Wye Plantation, Stockholm, Amman, Camp David, Sharm, you "create facts" on the ground that ensure your continued control and prejudice the negotiations altogether. You exploit the last seven years since the signing of the Oslo Accords to: